Rogue - Shadow Stalkers

Rogue’s have a clear purpose in WoW, dealing damage. Rogues are a melee class that can use several high damage abilities to make sushi out of their opponents, whether in PvE or PvP. Rogues can Dual Wield every kind of one-handed weapon there that can be found in WoW. There are able to use their special abilities with the use of Energy. With some of these special abilities, one can apply a combo point on their target. The Rogue also has some finishing moves that are more effective when more combo points are applied on the target. There can be a maximum of five combo points on a target and they disappear once a finishing move is being used.

Next to their great damage dealing capability the Rogues are also known because of their ability to stealth and their preference to attack from behind with their backstab ability. They walk around stealthed in battlegrounds and arenas, sneak up behind their enemies and have an edge over them. Being able to stealth also comes in handy in PvE scenarios because there is an ability called sap which can be used on Humanoid mobs which keeps them out of combat for up to sixty seconds. They are also able to Blind a enemy for 12 second, making him incapable to do anything.

Rogues also have some stunning and disrupting abilities which makes them great for both PvE and PvP purposes. Some good Rogues are able to stunlock enemy NPC’s or players, which basically means that they can hardly move, cast or attack.

Rogues can also use some poisons on their weapons that either boost their damage or put some other debuff on a target.

The following races have Rogues in their ranks: Dwarves, Gnomes, Humans, Trolls, Undead, Orcs, and Blood Elves.

A Rogue can choose to specialize in the Assassination, Combat, or Subtlety build, or choose to combine either one of these talent trees. All the trees are there to increase the damage output of a Rogue, since tanking or healing are definitely not his thing and can even be considered as a Rogue’s weak spots. It is for the player to decide which talent tree suits him best. All the trees got their pros and cons, the one player likes this, the other likes that, discussions go on and on but basically it comes down to preferences.

What can be said is that the Assassination tree is usually chosen for leveling and focuses on the crit rate and poison aspects of the Rogue, while the combat build offers the Rogue the chance to specialize in a particular type of weapon, which is why this build is probably better at 80 once you got some steady weapons.

The Subtlety build focuses on the Survivability, crowd control and Stealth aspects of the Rogue. This build gives the Rogue some burst damage and this is probably why a lot of PvP Rogues go for this build.

Paladins - Holy Warriors

The Paladin is a hybrid class, capable to tank, heal and do damage. The Paladin can wear plate armor, shields and most melee weapons. The Paladin uses the Holy magic school and physical attacks for most of his abilities.

One of the most well known abilities of the Paladin is Divine Shield, often called ‘Bubble’. The Divine Shield is an instantly casted spell that protects the Paladin from any damage for 12 seconds. Divine Intervention is almost as good as Divine Shield and can even be casted on party or raid members. It protects the target from all physical attacks. The Paladin also has various auras that affect the entire party and several buffs that can also be cast on different players. The Paladins abilities cost Mana, no matter what build one chooses.

The following races have Paladins in their ranks: Humans, Dwarves, Draenei, and Blood Elves.

A Paladin can be a very capable tank when the Protection talent tree is used. While using a shield and some abilities that create high amounts of threat, the Paladin can easily tank in dungeons. A Paladin tank is probably the best tank when it comes down to keeping aggro on multiple targets. This comes at a cost though meaning that he isn’t as good as a Warrior Tank in example when it comes to single target tanking. Some buffs also become available in this talent tree like Blessing of Sanctuary and Blessing of Kings, even though the last one doesn’t have to be chosen since it requires quite a few talent points.

A healing Paladin should use the Holy talent tree to maximize the effect of his healing spells and to obtain some other healing spells that will make him a great healer. A Holy Paladin is a very capable healer known for his fast heals. Known to be one of the best single target healers while his weak spot is the lack in heals that can heal an entire group. A Holy Paladin should focus on getting a lot of critical strike rating, because his heals will heal more and a lot of his heals will refund Mana this way.

Finally there is the Retribution Paladin. While wielding a 2h weapon and being able to use several abilities that deal great amounts of damage, the Retribution Paladin is a great class for both PvE and PvP. This hasn’t always been the case; before the WotLK, Retribution Paladins were almost never welcome in either raids or PvP teams. This is probably why they have received a great boost and are now one of the stronger PvP classes and builds out there.

A Paladin is a strong class, fighting one can be really annoying as it seems that they have multiple lives sometimes. Playing one is a great experience. A nice thing about a Paladin is that you can gather different types of gear and then change from a tank to a healer or DPS if you get a bit bored with your build.

Mage - Magic is what they do best

A Mage is a powerful casting class capable to do immense amounts of damage and control the enemies.
While using Arcane, Fire and Frost a Mage is definitely one of the best damage dealing classes in WoW. Mages are known to do great Area of Effect (AoE) damage with several great abilities and be able to control both enemy NPCs and players with Polymorph, Frost Nova and the like.

The downside of a Mage is that one usually has low hit points and his cloth armor doesn’t help with his survivability. He does have spells to keep enemies at bay though or to cast an Ice Block which makes the Mage immune to any damage for a period of time.

A mage is incapable to heal or tank so damage dealing is his main purpose. The Mage does have other abilities that make him wanted in many groups and PvP teams. Like said before, the Polymorph ability is great to control mobs because it turns a Humanoid or Beast enemy NPC or Player into a Sheep, Turtle, or Pig. A Mage can also teleport to other cities and even make portals so others can benefit from his ability. Another reason why a Mage is always welcome in a group is his ability to conjure food and water which is especially welcomed by healers that otherwise would have to buy their mana drinks.
These abilities also come in very handy while leveling. Being able to teleport will save a lot of time on the long run and making food and drinks whenever one pleases is also a time and money saver.

The Mage can also buff himself with Arcane Intellect and has several magical armors he can choose from. He can also cast Arcane Intellect on his party or even entire raids.

One nice thing that is nice to know is that Dalaran, the capital of Northrend, is a Mage city. The Kirin Tor is a faction of Mages and all the Mage players start with Friendly reputation towards this faction.

The Mage class can be played by Gnomes, Draenei, Humans, Trolls, Blood Elves, and Undead players.

Mages have three talent builds namely Arcane, Frost and Fire. You will run into mages that have specialized in any of these talent trees because they all have pros and cons. It is up to your own preferences to whatever build you would like. I would advise you, if you intend to make a Mage, to try out several builds to see what you like best and not just follow anybody else’s opinion.

I can tell you though that the Frost Build is quite nice to level because it doesn’t burn your mana away that fast and you have several nice abilities like the Water Elemental and Ice Barrier which absorbs damage. At 80 this build is still nice and can be seen quite often in PvP.

Then there is the Fire build which focuses mainly on single target damage, even though also two AoE spells become available in this tree.

It was never really worth it to go 100% Arcane until the WotLK arrived. With some new talents and a bigger variety of damaging attacks this build has become a lot better and is now also a great build for PvE and PvP. Arcane is also often used for Hybrid builds (Frost/Arcane, Fire/Arcane).

World of Warcraft: Blood Elf Cosplay/Costume

Yesterday I came across a small gallery of 8 Bloodelf Cosplay pictures from Blizzards World of Warcraft. They show a pretty cute girl in an Bloodelf costume.

Check it out yourself!

Enjoy!